CCSF making big changes to stay afloat

Education

Students cross Phelan Avenue at the main campus of S.F. City College, which is under fire by the accrediting commission.

Students cross Phelan Avenue at the main campus of S.F. City College, which is under fire by the accrediting commission.

Photo: Megan Farmer, The Chronicle

Photo: Megan Farmer, The Chronicle

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Students cross Phelan Avenue at the main campus of S.F. City College, which is under fire by the accrediting commission.

Students cross Phelan Avenue at the main campus of S.F. City College, which is under fire by the accrediting commission.

Photo: Megan Farmer, The Chronicle

CCSF making big changes to stay afloat

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It's like changing tires on a speeding car.

That's how college officials describe their efforts to transform City College of San Francisco from dysfunction to efficiency - upending its culture, priorities, leadership and size - by the March 15 deadline imposed by a hard-nosed accrediting commission willing to shut down the school of 85,000 students if the changes fall short.

Negotiations between the college and labor leaders have begun, and painful concessions - including the first layoffs in memory - represent at least one tire on the car. The college expects to lay off at least 30 full-time clerical employees and dozens of part-time faculty and counselors in January.

All sides say they've managed to change other tires since July, when college leaders, faculty and students were stunned to learn that their future depends on running the huge college in a more productive, businesslike way. Nobody says the work is done and nobody is happy about every change.

But everyone - from those who quickly accepted the accreditation commission's requirements, to those who still resist them - acknowledges that City College is changing, like it or not.

"We are light-years ahead," said Pamila Fisher, who served as interim chancellor from May through October. "We have a long way to go, but we're light-years ahead."

Teaching effectively

If you're a college faculty member anywhere, chances are you know the term "student learning outcomes."

It's a practice in which instructors study each other's teaching, then change their methods if grades and other data show that students aren't learning enough.

It's so common - student learning outcomes are required for accreditation - that colleges call it "doing your SLOs."

At City College, they weren't doing their SLOs. Faculty generally saw them as something intrusive, weren't entirely sure what was required, and managed to ignore them for years.

Then the accreditation team showed up.

Fisher brought in experts to help City College faculty understand what student learning outcomes mean and how to do them.

The idea is that faculty have to agree on what skills should be required for each course, then look at what kind of teaching yields the best work from students. But key to the process, and most disconcerting, is that faculty have to be open to scrutiny by their peers and willing to discard methods they've relied on for years if they aren't good enough.

"We're testing our teaching," said Diana Markham, chairwoman of the Physics Department. To make the process possible for the college's 1,800 full- and part-time faculty members, Tom Boegel, curriculum dean, gathered large amounts of data on student achievement while Katryn Wiese, chairwoman of the Earth Sciences Department, spent months building a website so that each department could see the data and have the tools to do the work. It's all up for public viewing at ccsf.edu/slo.

Now Wiese said she hears her colleagues say they appreciate sharing ideas and advice.

"That used to feel like a burden to most people, but I've definitely seen a change over the past three months," she said. "We've really pulled together. There are so many who care deeply about creating the best classes, programs and services possible for our students."

What to teach

Fisher, hired in May for a six-month stint as interim chancellor, hadn't been on the job two weeks before she noticed that City College had an almost random way of deciding which courses to offer each semester and how many instructors to deploy.

Whatever their method, it had little to do with student demand or even how much money was available.

The college, Fisher realized, was neglecting to do "enrollment management," an essential calculation that relies on data, not intuition, for decisions about courses and instructors.

Without it, City College was offering duplicate classes across its nine campuses, too few courses that students needed and too many that they didn't.

"That's not true anymore," said Fisher, who sent deans, department chairs, directors and vice chancellors to intensive training in enrollment management.

Now, college officials say, they're communicating more and trying to schedule classes that students need and want. Class sizes will probably be larger as a result, and students will have to visit more campuses for classes they want. But they're more likely to get them.

"The test," Fisher said, "will be this spring."

Narrowing the mission

If one theme underlies the problems at City College, it's that the good-hearted school has tried to be all things to all people despite losing $25 million in state funds since 2008.

So when the accreditation team saw that City College's mission still included "lifelong learning, life skills and cultural enrichment," it considered that a problem.

Across California, other community colleges had already begun to narrow their missions, focusing almost exclusively on preparing students for jobs, careers or transferring to a four-year university. A new state law was passed this fall that will deny fee waivers to students who linger too long at school or can't get focused.

Now City College trustees have revised their mission statement, dropping the emphasis on enrichment classes, such as music appreciation, memoir writing and other free classes enjoyed by many older adults.

A glance at the spring schedule shows the classes are still there. But the primary purpose of City College has officially changed. Its new statement emphasizes the basic business of a college, now described as preparation for jobs and university.

The mission statement still says that other programs and services are offered - but "only as resources allow."

Streamlining authority

In the early 1990s, state lawmakers gave college students, faculty and employees a voice in campus decision-making with a new approach called "shared governance."

Committees soon sprang up on campuses around the state, offering opinions on everything from student discipline to athletic subsidies. They continue to this day.

But at City College, shared governance went further, metamorphosing into a multi-headed hydra of 46 committees that did not merely advise leadership but often served to obstruct and control decision-making.

In its report, the accrediting team cited "indirect resistance to board and administrative decision-making authority" on the part of these governance groups.

In October, the college Board of Trustees voted to suspend dozens of governance committees, pending an overhaul of the system. Step one was a new name: "Participatory governance."

"Participatory governance makes it clear that any committees will be advisory, not decision-making," said Gohar Momjian, who oversees the college's response to the accreditation commission.

Back to class

Sometime after midnight on a cold October morning, City College trustees voted to dismantle a decades-long system of faculty leadership that the accreditation team deemed too costly.

They did so over the strong objections of department chairs.

Under the system, the chairs taught few classes and performed administrative work for a stipend. The college hired more part-time faculty to make up for the missing instructors and had to scramble to get administrative work done during the summer because, like most faculty, department chairs are off work then.

With their vote, the trustees sent most of the chairs back to the classroom full-time and had them cede administrative work to academic deans.

They also agreed to group academic departments under eight schools, each headed by a dean. The changes are expected to save the college $2 million a year.

Fewer instructional sites

City College is a big place. It has nine campuses, including one in Chinatown that opened this fall and more than 100 small "instructional sites" scattered around the city. Nearly 49,000 students take classes for credit, and nearly 36,000 more take noncredit classes, ranging from computer skills to tai chi.

How much does each campus cost to operate?

That's what the accrediting team asked in July. No one knew the answer, and a team is still working to figure it out.

Meanwhile, the college has extracted itself from leases for three small sites - in the Richmond District, in Chinatown and in the Castro - which are closing this month.

The college will also move its business operations from 33 Gough St. a prime site in Hayes Valley near Market Street, and is looking to lease the property to a developer.

Budgeting

The typical planning method used by schools, governments and businesses is a basic budget projection a few years into the future.

But City College never saw itself as typical.

"This is a college that has tended, over 10 years, to live from year to year," said Peter Goldstein, vice chancellor of finance and administration.

Not anymore. This summer, the college created its first three-year budget projection, with plans to update it continually.

"City College will have to spend money in ways much more similar to the ways other colleges do," Goldstein said.

One change in particular has prompted deep disappointment among students: City College will no longer look the other way when students register for class without paying required fees.

The practice of letting students slide has cost City College $8.5 million over several years, or about $400,000 a year, Goldstein told trustees.

Now, unless their income is low enough to qualify for a fee waiver, all students will have to start paying for classes, the trustees recently decided. The college will also try to collect fees owed from prior years.

The future

After March 15, the fate of City College will move to the accrediting commission, which will decide in June whether college doors may open again in the fall. Until then, administrators, faculty and staff say they will keep trying to change tires on the speeding car.

Many tasks remain.

One of them is a "closure report" that lays out what students should do if City College's accreditation is withdrawn.

But perhaps the most daunting is a self-evaluation describing how well the college is able to satisfy every requirement needed for accreditation: reforming finances, expenditures, staffing, organization, programs, instruction and decision-making.

All colleges have to do a self-evaluation to help accreditation evaluators better understand them. The one City College did last year - just before it was put on notice - was filled with self-praise and high marks for itself. Like a family protective of its secrets, no one had wanted to admit the college was in disarray.

For the new report, "I've told everyone, you air your dirty laundry so we can fix it!" Fisher said as she concluded her term with the college. "Always be thorough and honest in a self-evaluation, and then you address it."

The accrediting commission will want to see that the college is well on its way toward implementing the changes required by the team and promised by the college.

Once-gloomy City College employees are verging on optimism.

"We've done an incredible amount of work," Momjian said. "It's been gratifying to see so many people focused on keeping us accredited, making the painful changes, and making us better."

Previous stories

To see all of The Chronicle's stories on City College of San Francisco's struggle to remain accredited, visit sfg.ly/W5jcr1